Seduce Me, Cowboy (Mills & Boon Desire) (Copper Ridge)

by Maisey Yates

  “I don’t think I’m ever going to,” he said slowly, imagining Hayley again, picturing her as she stared up at him on the street. Fury, hurt, love shining from her eyes. “But...if she sees it...”

  “That’s a start,” Rebecca said. “As long as you don’t let her get away. As long as you don’t push her away.”

  “It’s too late for that. She’s probably not going to want to see me again. She’s probably not going to want me back.”

  “Well, you won’t know unless you ask.” Rebecca took a deep breath. “The best thing about love is it has the capacity to forgive on a pretty incredible level. But if there’s one thing you and I both know, it’s that it’s hard to forgive someone leaving. Don’t make that the story. Go back. Ask for forgiveness. Change what needs to be changed. Mostly...love her. The rest kind of takes care of itself.”

  Fourteen

  Hayley had just settled back onto her couch for more quality sitting and weeping when she heard a knock at her door.

  She stood up, brushing potato chip crumbs off her pajamas and grimacing. Maybe it was Cassie, bringing up baked goods. The other woman had done that earlier; maybe now she was bringing more. Hayley could only hope.

  She had a gaping wound in her chest that could be only temporarily soothed by butter.

  Without bothering to fix her hair—which was on top of her head in a messy knot—she jerked the door open.

  And there he was. Dark eyes glittering, gorgeous mouth pressed into a thin line. His dark hair tied back low on his neck, the way she was accustomed to seeing him during the day.

  Her heart lurched up into her throat, trying to make a break for it.

  She hadn’t been expecting him, but she imagined expecting him wouldn’t have helped. Jonathan Bear wasn’t someone you could anticipate.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He looked around. “I came here to talk to you. Were you...expecting someone else?”

  “Yes. A French male prostitute.” He lifted his brows. “Well, you told me to find another man to tick my boxes.”

  “I think you mean a gigolo.”

  “I don’t know what they’re called,” she said, exasperated.

  The corner of his mouth twitched. “Well, I promise to be quick. I won’t interrupt your sex date.”

  She stepped to the side, ignoring the way her whole body hurt as she did. “I don’t have a sex date.” She cleared her throat. “Just so you know.”

  “Somehow, I didn’t think you did.”

  “You don’t know me,” she grumbled, turning away from him, pressing her hand to her chest to see if her heart was beating as hard and fast as she felt like it was.

  It was.

  “I do, Hayley. I know you pretty damn well. Maybe better than I know myself. And...I think you might know me better than I know myself, too.” He sounded different. Sad. Tired.

  She turned around to face him, and with his expression more fully illuminated by the light, she saw weariness written there. Exhaustion.

  “For all the good it did me,” she said, crossing her arms tightly in a bid to protect herself. Really, though, it was too late. There wasn’t anything left to protect. He had shattered her irrevocably.

  “Yeah, well. It did me a hell of a lot of good. At least, I hope it’s going to. I hope I’m not too late.”

  “Too late for what? To stick the knife in again or...?”

  “To tell you I love you,” he said.

  Everything froze inside her. Absolutely everything. The air in her lungs, her heart, the blood in her veins.

  “You...you just said... Don’t tease me, Jonathan. Don’t play with me. I know I’m younger than you. I know that I’m innocent. But if you came back here to lie to me, to say what you think I need to hear so you can...keep having me in your bed, or whatever—”

  Suddenly, she found herself being hauled forward into his arms, against his chest. “I do want you in my bed,” he said, “make no mistake about that. But sex is just sex, Hayley, even when it’s good. And what we have is good.

  “But here’s something you don’t know, because you don’t have experience with it. Sex isn’t love. And it doesn’t feel like this. I feel...like everything in me is broken and stronger at the same time, and I don’t know how in the hell that can be true. And when you told me you loved me... I knew I could either let go of everything in the past or hold on to it harder to protect myself.” He shook his head. “I protected myself.”

  “Yeah, well. What about protecting me?”

  “I thought maybe I was protecting you, too. But it’s all tangled up in this big lie that I’ve been telling myself for years. I told you I didn’t love people, that I love things. But I said that only because I’ve had way too much experience with people I love leaving. A house can’t walk away, Hayley. A mountain can’t up and abandon you. But you could.

  “One day, you could wake up and regret that you tied your future to me. When you could have done better... When you could have had a man who wasn’t so damn broken.” He cupped her cheek, bent down and kissed her lips. “What did I do to earn the love of someone like you? Someone so beautiful...so soft. You’re everything I’m not, Hayley Thompson, and all the reasons I love you make perfect sense to me. But why do you love me? That’s what I can’t quite figure out.”

  Hayley looked into his eyes, so full of pain, so deeply wounded. She would have never thought a man like him would need reassurance from anyone, least of all a woman like her.

  “I know I don’t have a lot of experience, Jonathan. Well, any experience apart from you. I know that I haven’t seen the whole world. I haven’t even seen the whole state. But I’ve seen your heart. The kind of man you are. The change that knowing you, loving you, created in me. And I know...perfect love casts out all fear.

  “I can’t say I haven’t been afraid these past couple of days. Afraid I couldn’t be with you. That things might not work out with us. But when I stood on Main Street... I knew fear couldn’t be allowed to win. It was your love that brought me to that conclusion. Your love was bigger than the fear inside me. I don’t need experience to understand that. I don’t need to travel the world or date other men for the sake of experience. I need you. Because whether or not you’re perfect, you’re perfect for me.”

  “You’re perfect,” he said, his voice rough. “So damned perfect. I want...to take you to Canada.”

  She blinked. “Well. That’s not exactly an offer to run off to Vegas.”

  “You want to use your passport. Why wait? Let’s go now. Your boss will let you off. I’m sure of it.”

  Something giddy bubbled up in her chest. Something wonderful. “Right now? Really?”

  “Right the hell now.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, let’s go to Canada.”

  “It’s not the Eiffel Tower,” he said, “but I will take you there someday. I promise you that.”

  “The only thing I need is you,” she said. “The rest is negotiable.”

  His lips crashed down on hers, his kiss desperate and intense, saying the deep, poetic things she doubted her stoic cowboy would ever say out loud. But that was okay. The kiss said plenty all on its own.

  Epilogue

  Jonathan hated wearing a suit. He’d never done it before, but he had come to a swift and decisive conclusion the moment he’d finished doing up his tie.

  Hayley was standing in their bedroom, looking amused. The ring on her left hand glittered as bright as her eyes, and suddenly, it wasn’t the tie that was strangling him. It was just her. The love on her beautiful face. The fact she loved him.

  He still hadn’t quite figured out why. Still wasn’t sure he saw all the things in himself that Rebecca had spoken of that day, all the things Hayley talked about when she said she loved him.

  But Hayley did love him. And that was a gift he cherished.

  “You’re not going to make me wear a suit when we do this, are you?” he asked.

  “I might,” she said. “You look re
ally hot in a suit.”

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest. “You look hottest in nothing at all. Think we could compromise?”

  “We’ve created enough scandal already without me showing up naked to my wedding. Anyway, I’m wearing white. I am a traditional girl, after all.”

  “Honey, you oughta wear red.”

  “Are you calling me a scarlet woman?”

  He nodded. “Yes, and I think you proved your status earlier this morning.”

  She blushed. She still blushed, even after being with him for six months. Blushed in bed, when he whispered dirty things into her ear. He loved it.

  He loved her.

  He couldn’t wait to be her husband, and that was something he hadn’t imagined ever feeling. Looking forward to being a husband.

  Of course, he was looking forward to the honeymoon even more. To staying in a little apartment in Paris with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

  For him, trading in a view of the mountains for a view of the city didn’t hold much appeal. But she wanted it. And the joy he got from giving Hayley what she wanted was the biggest thing in his world.

  Waiting to surprise her with the trip was damn near killing him.

  “You have to hurry,” she said, pushing at his shoulder. “You’re giving the bride away, after all.”

  Jonathan took a deep breath. Yeah, it was time. Time to give his sister to that Gage West, who would never deserve her, but who loved her, so Jonathan was willing to let it go. Willing to give them his blessing.

  Actually, over the past few months he’d gotten kind of attached to the bastard who would be his brother-in-law. Something he’d thought would never be possible only a little while ago.

  But love changed you. Rebecca had been right about that.

  “All right,” he said. “Let’s go then.”

  Hayley kissed his cheek and took his hand, leading him out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The wedding guests were out on the back lawn, waiting for the event to start. When he and Hayley exited the house, they all turned to look.

  He and Hayley still turned heads, and he had a feeling they always would.

  Jonathan Bear had always been seen as a bad boy. In all the ways that phrase applied. The kind of boy no parent wanted their daughter to bring home to Sunday dinner. And yet the pastor’s daughter had.

  He’d definitely started out that way. But somehow, through some miracle, he’d earned the love of a good woman.

  And because of her love, he was determined to be the best man he could possibly be.

  * * * * *

  EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

  Read on for a sneak preview of

  Reunited with the Rancher

  by Sara Orwig

  One

  Tom Knox hurried down the hall of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, his footsteps muffled by the thick carpet. The dark wood-paneled walls held oil paintings and two tall mirrors in wide ornate frames. There were potted palms and chairs covered in antique satin. Tom was so accustomed to his surroundings he paid no attention until a woman rounded the corner at the end of the long hall.

  Tom’s insides clutched and heat filled him as he looked at his estranged wife, Emily Archer Knox. Physical attraction, definitely lust, hit him as his gaze swept over her.

  Wavy honey-brown hair framed her face. Her hair was always soft to touch. There was no way to shut off the memories, no matter how much they hurt or stirred him. A red linen suit with a matching linen blouse and red high heels added to her attractiveness. The red skirt ended above her knees, leaving her shapely legs bare to her ankles. His imagination filled in how she would look without the red linen. While desire ran rampant, at the same time, a shroud of guilt enveloped him. He had failed her in the worst way possible.

  Each time he saw Emily, guilt gnawed at him for failing to save the life of their four-year-old son, Ryan, after a tour bus accident on a family ski vacation in Colorado. It had been five long, guilt-ridden years since then, and a chilly bitterness had settled in between them. His life had improved only slightly last year when he’d moved out of the house to the guesthouse on their ranch. They could go for weeks without crossing paths.

  In many ways it was better to be apart, because then he could let go of the burden of guilt. That’s why he had joined the Army Rangers for three years after the accident. After the death of his close friend, Jeremy, he wanted out of the Rangers. He couldn’t be with Emily without thinking about how he had failed her and how unhappy she had been with him.

  At the moment when they approached each other, Emily looked up and her green eyes widened. They avoided each other most of the time but couldn’t today. He kept walking, his heart drumming while desire and guilt continued to war within him. Would he ever be able to face her without an internal emotional upheaval? Her smile was polite, the kind of smile usually reserved for strangers. When she came closer, her smile vanished before she greeted him with a quiet, “Hi, Tom.”

  “Good morning. You look great,” he couldn’t keep from saying.

  Her gaze shifted to the briefcase in his hand. “Are you at the club for a meeting?”

  “Yes. The finance committee. How about you?”

  “I’m having lunch with a friend,” she answered. How polite they were, yet a storm was going on within him. Guilt, hurt, too much loss plagued him each time he saw Emily or talked to her.

  “Have a good time,” he said as he passed her.

  Her perfume stirred memories of holding her in his arms while he kissed her. Longing tore at him along with anger at himself. Why couldn’t he let go completely? He and Emily didn’t have anything together any longer. Only he knew that wasn’t true. There was one thing they still had that hadn’t vanished—a physical attraction that he felt each time she came into his sight. It was something he couldn’t understand and didn’t want to think about.

  On a physical level, he knew she felt that chemistry as much as he did. She couldn’t hide her reactions completely, and neither could he. But each time he encountered her, he was reminded that they both needed a chance for a fresh start, and that maybe the best thing he could do would be to give her a divorce and get out of her life completely.

  * * *

  After lunch at the Texas Cattleman’s Club and an afternoon at her photography studio in downtown Royal, Emily drove home to Knox Acres, the cattle ranch she shared with Tom. She still couldn’t stop replaying their brief encounter at the Texas Cattleman’s Club. Since she first met him, she’d had a strong physical reaction to Tom. She still got tingles from just seeing him. Through good times, through the worst of times, Tom had dazzled her since they had fallen in love at sixteen. She had no comparison, but she didn’t think that mattered. Tom was the best-looking, most appealing guy she had ever known.

  Even so, other aspects of their marriage outweighed sheer lust. And they had lost what was essential in a marriage—that union of hearts, that joy in each other.

  Their happiness had shattered the night their tour bus had skidded on an icy Colorado highway, going into a frozen pond. Tom had almost died pulling Ryan from the frigid water. Tom had ended up with pneumonia, a deep cut on his knee and a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. But in the end, he hadn’t been able to save their son’s life. After three days Tom could travel and they flew Tom, Emily and Ryan to a big hospital in Denver. They couldn’t help Ryan, either. In eight more days, Ryan succumbed to his injuries. Somehow, amid all the grief, she and Tom composed themselves long enough to donate Ryan’s organs to spare other parents the agony of losing a child.

  The vacation had been Tom’s family reunion, and twenty-three members of his family were on the bus. Besides Ryan, Tom’s aunt died from drowning. Three other people, including two children, died in the accident, but they weren’t in the Knox party.

  Weeks turned into months and months into years, and her memories became more precious. In an effort to strengthen their marriage, they had tried to conceive again, but a new
baby—a new start—never happened for them. Emily felt she had failed Tom in this; it was another blow to their marriage. They’d lost their son, and eventually their love, and their relationship became more strained until Tom moved out and they hardly saw each other any longer. It was general knowledge with most people they knew that they were estranged. Sometimes that still shocked her as much as everything else that had happened to them. She had been so in love with Tom when they married, she never would have believed the day would come when they barely spoke and hardly saw each other.

  Hoping to put Tom out of her thoughts, she talked to her big white cat that had been a kitten given to Ryan when he was four. After feeding Snowball, she turned on her computer to read her email, and in seconds, a message caught her attention.

  It was harsh, simple: Guess you weren’t woman enough to hold his interest. Here’s his real family, his secret family—until now. Frowning and puzzled, Emily scanned the subject: Today—for your eyes only. Tomorrow—for all of Royal to see.

  She froze when she read the sender’s name: Maverick. She had no idea who Maverick was. No one in Royal knew the identity of the hateful troll who’d been threatening and blackmailing people in town for the past few months. There were rumors Maverick might be the work of the three snooty stepsisters—that’s how she pictured the clique of women, Cecelia Morgan, Simone Parker and Naomi Price, who seemed to think they owned the Texas Cattleman’s Club and everything else in Royal these days. They always made Emily feel that she wasn’t good enough to be included in their company.